*** NEWS RELEASE ***
For Immediate Release December 27, 2016
CONTACT:
Jen Retallick, Hamilton Strategies, 610.584.1096, ext. 100, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, or Deborah Hamilton, 215.815.7716, 610.584.1096, ext. 102
The Tide® Ministry Reflects on 70th Year
Global Gospel Radio Ministry Looks Back on Accomplishments and God’s Blessings on 2016 Initiatives, Forges Ahead for 2017
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa.— This past year, The Tide global radio ministry celebrated 70 years, and this is just the beginning according to The Tide leadership!
As part of its Vision 2016 initiative, The Tide® (www.thetide.org) ministry worked toward new methods to bring people in all corners of the world the message of the unconditional love and saving grace of Jesus.
“2016 has been a busy year for The Tide ministry, as we’ve celebrated 70 years of sharing the Gospel worldwide through media and partnerships,” said Don Shenk, director of The Tide ministry. “Thanks to The Tide radio programs, thousands of people in remote villages around the world are hearing the Gospel—often for the first time. The Tide missionaries also deliver radios and share Christian radio broadcasts in the languages local people were born to speak. So far, The Tide offers programming in 24 languages, and we love hearing the stories of those lives who have been changed forever by the Gospel.”
Vision 2016 had the following goals to reach people in their own languages for Christ:
- Add another day of programming in the Albanian language
- Implement the Isaan language in Thailand
- See the completion of a new studio in Zimbabwe
- Establish a church planter in Bangladesh
- Welcome a discipleship worker among the Tharu in Nepal
- Initiate a Telugu language radio program in India
In Albania, The Tide ministry has been working with three Albanian pastors to produce and air radio programs in two major cities in Albania and in another city in neighboring Kosovo, where Albanian is the official language. The positive responses from these listeners have been overwhelming, prompting The Tide ministry to add another day of programming in each of these countries. Not only was another day of programming added on a radio station in Tirana, but The Tide ministry is also airing programming on a third station in Albania and a second station in Kosovo.
In Thailand, Christians make up less than 2 percent of the population, but the Lord has opened a door for The Tide ministry to share God’s Word in this predominantly Buddhist nation. The Tide ministry has entered into an agreement with a partner there to produce and air Gospel messages in the Isaan language, which is spoken by 19 million people in the country. In 2017, The Tide ministry plans to add Isaan as its 25th heart language. A majority of the Isaan programs have already been recorded, and research is also being done on how to reach the people of Thailand with the Good News of the Gospel through a smartphone app.
The Tide ministry has had a presence in India for about 40 years, and one of the goals for 2016 was to implement a Telugu language broadcast in this populous nation. The Tide leaders worked with a local pastor to record a series of messages in Odisha, and the programs went on the air on Oct. 30, 2016. Telugu was the 24th heart language for The Tide ministry.
Also to mark the 70th anniversary, The Tide ministry hosted a birthday party at Roxbury Holiness Camp on Aug. 11—the actual date when The Tide founder Charlie Byers first went on air with the Gospel Tide Hour radio program in 1946. Then on Oct. 16, more than 200 guests joined The Tide ministry at Whispering Pines of Carlisle for 70th Anniversary Celebration Dinner. There, the Rev. Maurice Bender, who led The Tide ministry for 27 years from 1974 to 2001, was presented with a special award.
As it continues to reflect on 70 years, The Tide ministry broadcasts the Gospel of Jesus Christ through radio programming in heart languages around the world, bringing the truth and hope of the Savior to people in the language they were born to speak. Spreading the Gospel in multiple regions of Zimbabwe, India, Nigeria, Nepal, Bhutan, Albania and Kosovo, The Tide global radio ministry praises God for the many doors He has opened in the seven decades it has been in existence.
For more information about The Tide projects, history, Gospel radio programming around the world, the “Have You Heard?” Campaign, the weekly Global Update radio features or other news, visit its web site at www.thetide.org or its Facebook page.
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To schedule interviews with Don Shenk, director of The Tide global radio ministry, contact Jen Retallick at 610-584-1096, ext. 100, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, or Deborah Hamilton at 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, ext. 102.
For 70 years, The Tide radio programs have been changing lives by telling people about Jesus in the language they were born to speak. Founded in 1946 as the Gospel Tide Broadcasting Association, The Tide ministry has transitioned from a domestic radio program to a versatile multi-national outreach focusing on the least reached regions of the world. Through radio broadcasts in 24 heart languages, thousands of lost people are coming to know Christ. Driven by a sense of urgency to rescue the world from false teachings and pagan religious practices, The Tide board of directors is constantly working to introduce evangelistic radio programs in additional languages so that an ever increasing number of people can hear the good news about Jesus and His love for them.
The Tide outreach includes discipleship seminars, literature distribution, Bible correspondence courses and leadership training. This combination of ministry elements has proven to be extremely effective in changing lives and planting churches where believers are nurtured in their faith so that whole communities are drawn into the Kingdom of God.
